In the C-Suite

TNJ was six years old when Franklin Raines became the first Black CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 1999. Raines remained at the helm of Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance firm, until 2004. Five years later, Ursula Burns, became the first Black female to head a Fortune 500 company as chairman and CEO of Xerox Corp. Over the life of TNJ, Blacks have made it into the C-Suite at Fortune 500 companies, but Black chief executives at these companies remain a rarity. At the time this issue of TNJ went to press, only six Blacks were in Fortune 500 CEO positions.

Blacks are also a rarity on corporate boards. In a report on its 2010 census titled “Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards,” the Alliance for Board Diversity reveals that white men held 74.5 percent of Fortune 500 board seats versus 5.7 percent for African-American men and 1.9 percent for African-American women. By 2012, the percentage of African-American male directors had slid to 5.5 percent, while the percentage of African-American female directors remained flat. White men continue to hold the top spots, with roughly 95 percent of board chair positions and 86 percent of lead director slots in 2012. Most of the 56 board seats that opened between 2011 and 2012 went to white women.